Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-11-28
GIRLS AMONG BONDS.
AN INDUSTRY IN WHICH WOMEN
ARE SUPERIOR TO MEN.

The Way Good Looking Young Ladies
Make and Handle Miliions--Their Work
and Their Pay-Intricacies of Banknote
and Bond Engraving.
'Those are the girls who make money!"
remarked gentleman as a long line of girls
came laughing and chatting out of big
building. They We're happy and cheerful
and as handsomely dressed and jauntily ar
rayed as if they were just making their exit
from matinee A reporter ventured up to
the eighth floor of the big building to see the
money making process.
Seated at their desks in the companys
Office are the young ladies who act as ac-
countants and timekeepers. They are ex-
perts at figures and the whole business Of the
department has been reduced to such a system
that almost at glance the cost of every
thing that enters into the work, even to the
gum on the back Of a stamp, can be ascer-
tained
A door to the left was opened, and disclosed
to view ten or dozen girls engaged in veri-
flying numbers and counting perfected work.
Here great skill and quick perception are re-
quired. Sharp eyes run with the speed of
lightning down the long rows of coupons and
verify the numbers, while other eyes, equally
as quick, examine each sheet and it is passed
along or tossed out as imperfect, until the
finished work reaches the counter, ," by whom
it is bundled, marked and certified with her
| signature 1t then goes to the great safe,
| where it is receipted for, and the work is fill
ished.
MILLIONS OF SECURITIES.
| Standing in this safe, surrounded by mil
| lions of securities, including many of the
| South and Central American republics, as
| well as those of innumerable corporations in
| the United States and Europe, the process of
engraving and printing was explained from
the time the blank paper left the stock room
until it reached this afe in its finished condi-
tion. The whole business is conducted on a
series of orders and receipts, and not sheet
or scrap Of paper can go astray from the
time it enters the establishment until it is
| ready for delivery Indeed, when the safes
| and fireproof vaults are locked at night there
| isn't paper enough about the establishment
for mouse to make a bed
Although European competition is large
this country secures the better class of bono
and banknote work, for in no other land ha.
engraving in this special line reached sucl
perfection. Today the money makers of th'
United States stand at the head of the list, it
inventive genius having solved many OF tn,
problems of defeating the imitator and tn
counterfeiter. Here, for instance is a bone
Of Cuba. On the back is map of the island
and in the net of scroll work the word ''Cuba
is woven $500 times. 1t is, however, but
sample of many others, the eounterfeiting o
which isabsolutely impossible. In the passag
of each one of these shests of paper through tn
house it has been subjected to fifty-two count
ings from as many different persons Ever.
/ spoiled and detective sheet has also been aC
counted for.
The engraving rooms, where skillful artist
were at their work; the process by which tn
engraved plates were transferred TO the stet
press plates and hardened; the geonetrica
lathe for engraving scroll work, which car
not be duplicated by hand; the printing an
the ink rooms-all were visited, as were ais
= the great iron vaults, containing hundreds {
perfect plates, from which an average {
10 0OO, 900 each of securities have been printet